NO PITY PARTY FOR PENELOPE CRUZ

In the film Volver Penelope Cruz gave her character Raimunda, a working mother who must take on four jobs because of her out of work husband, a very specific look wearing her hair in a disheveled but stylized way and her eye make-up was very precise as well. Penelope says taking the time to put herself together mirrored her refusal to become a victim.

Penelope can relate to the seduction of a pity party when things go wrong but like her character she refuses to give up.

“Every morning she takes 15 minutes to put herself together. It’s a way of manifesting her dignity as a woman and the way she wants to see herself. It’s a woman who went through very traumatic experiences when she was 14. That’s when she got pregnant and still she has not cut her sexuality away. Nothing can stop her. I loved that about that character that very easily she could’ve become a victim and she hasn’t.”

The only difference between Penelope and her character was they didn’t share the same body type. Director Pedro Almodovar gave Penelope a prosthetic bum to meet the character’s more ample physical requirements.

“There have been a few times in my life where I also could have gone in that road and say, ‘I can not afford to become a victim because it’s justified.’ No. No, because you feel good for five minutes about people’s pity and sympathy and then what do you do with that? That brings you down so much. It’s so tricky. So I identified with her in those terms. I can be a fighter like that and then very weak for other things again like my character.”